Almond Brittle

Last weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to whip up a batch of almond brittle to send to Michelle, who placed the winning bid in Meghann's Blogger Bake Sale.

My parents had friends over and the house was filled with their laughter and chatter. They wandered into the kitchen, where they were greeted by the sight of gleaming, cooling almond brittle. I gave each a piece.

"Wow," they said, "This is really good brittle."
"You should sell this," one murmured, peering closely at the brittle between his fingers. "I'd buy this."

His words have been swirling in my mind for the past week. I recalled how one night, as I stood in the kitchen, readying the brittle for mailing, I daydreamt of how nice it would be if I could sell the brittle and donate the proceeds to charity. I think the friend's suggestion really inspired me research further on this idea, so I'm here to ask you, beautiful bloggers, a question: What do you think of this idea?

To encourage your ideas, I will randomly pick a comment from this entry and mail a batch of almond brittle to the author.

Pecan Nut Butter

Of all the kitchen electronics I've ever desired, a blender simply had no place amongst them; that's quite difficult to imagine, since I'm usually able to effectively convey to my checkbook the necessity of having one kitchen appliance or another. For example, if I catch myself noting how much time is invested in chopping nuts, I start to contemplate that oh, wouldn't it be ideal if I had a nut chopper, like the one that I saw at Williams-Sonoma? And Sarah, I'm almost positive I just heard you snicker.

In contrast, I've always talked myself out of purchasing a blender simply for means of acquisition. "Oh Pearl," I'd say, "You don't need a blender. You don't like smoothies, juices or shakes, nor do you like to drink your daily servings of fruits and vegetables. There is no use (or room) for a blender on your counters."
Sighing, I'd tear myself away from the blenders with those woeful eyes and march on over to the proud, professional stand mixers.

So when my parents allowed me to play around in their kitchen for an afternoon, I set my sights on their blender. I toasted some nuts and threw them in the whirring machine, alternating the speeds between low and high.

After several minutes, I detached the lid from the container and was immediately overcome by the intoxicating, rich aroma of toasted pecans. I poured one and one-half cups of pecan butter into a glass jar for storage, then stashed it in the refrigerator as a little gift to my parents.

While I was browsing the aisles for a quality blender today, my mother called to tell me that the pecan butter was almost completely gone and that my father, who usually avoids all kinds of nut butters, was asking for more.

Honey Vanilla Ginger Crème Pudding

A few weeks ago, Newman's Own Organics sent me a large box filled with goodies. There were chocolate bars, mints, soft cookies, creme cookies, Fig Newmans, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I slowly lifted each item out of the box as if they were Christmas presents and squealed and gushed in delight as I carefully stored them in my pantry.

I have been busy lately, as evidenced by my infrequent posting and random commenting, but have decided to try and come up with a creative recipe involving one of the products that I received.

The product I chose were the "oreo" versions of Ginger cookies; Ginger-O's, they're called. Two crispy ginger cookies are graced with the light, creamy frosting that's reminiscent of the sweet cream in oreo cookies.

Although the Ginger-O's were the absolute favorites of some friends who dropped by, my family just wasn't feeling them. To tell you the truth, I wasn't a huge fan, either, due to my wimpy inability to take ginger head-on; You see, I prefer my ginger cookies to be subtly gingery.

In order to use the remaining Ginger-O's, I dropped by the supermarket and picked up some vanilla beans and honey then went home to create a Honey Vanilla Ginger Creme Pudding. I've never made pudding before, so was a bit nervous on this first attempt. Here is the finished product: